I have posted a 1.4 meg mpg movie depicting the differences between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. When you are close up and driving on Saddle Road the mountains look identical. However in the movie (which reflects 4x exaggeration of the Digital Elevation Model) you really see how smooth and massive the shield volcano Mauna Loa is while Mauna Kea has relatively puny mass and is very jagged. And Mauna Kea is no small mountain! The standard has always been that Mauna Kea is the world’s tallest mountain from base (below ocean level) to summit while Mauna Loa is the most massive. Mauna Loa will some point overtake Mauna Kea in height — give or take a few thousand years. Mauna Loa is still growing in the passive shield stage in which lava oozes out while Mauna Kea is leaving the passive shield stage and activity on it has been and will be explosive.

The movie was generated by 3dem. If you view this with 3D red-blue anaglyph glasses, you will be astounded by this! 1.4 megs